Children

Children are precious in God’s sight and there will be a reckoning for all abuse, neglect, abandonment, and the like against them. We have an obligation to instruct our children in God’s ways, to explain and remind them why we observe certain feasts, holy days, and services. God gave so many provisions for the widow and fatherless children. It matters a great deal to Him that children are properly, lovingly provided and cared for. It’s well past time we begin treating children the way God treats them!

Psalm 127:3 “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.”

Exodus 12:26 “And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?”

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” 

Exodus 22:22 “You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.”

Deuteronomy 14:29 “…and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.”

James 1:27 “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

Molech was an idol of the Ammonites to whom they would burn and sacrifice their children. There are so many perverse and disgusting ways this is still being done in the 21st century. Think of the various “altars” children are being sacrificed on. God cares for children perhaps more than anything else. God is just. God is faithful. God will have vengeance. The consequences for mistreating a child will be severe. Not only direct mistreatment, but there’s also consequences for turning a blind eye to the abuse!

Leviticus 20:2-5 “Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech.” 

Matthew 18:1-6 “At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

Deuteronomy 32:35, 43 “Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly. Rejoice with him, O heavens; bow down to him, all gods, for he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries. He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people’s land.”

Romans 12:19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 

Job 10:15 “If I am guilty, woe to me!”

I just feel this strong warning in the Spirit. We’ve got to be so careful how we treat children and what we allow. To the world and enemy who are bent of destroying children by any means possible, vengeance is coming and I don’t want to be standing anywhere near you!

The Deception of First Glance

This thought keeps coming to me, especially as I’m driving in my car. I see these signs all over the place: stores, restaurants, vehicles, billboards, etc. At first glance, I read something that always catches me off guard or makes me laugh. Then, as I take a second, sometimes third glance, I realize I misread it the first time. This has happened so many times over the past two months, I am convinced God is trying to teach me something.

How often do we look at a situation and at first glance make a judgment call? Too often when we refuse a second or third glance, we grow more and more adamant that our perception is the accurate one. Anyone else who sees something different than our first glance judgment we think is wrong. How many times have we looked at something and assumed we understood, only to return to ponder it and realize our initial judgment was in error? We do this with other people concerning political views, healthcare views, religious views, and lifestyle views, etc. Sadly, some ‘christians’ also do this while reading the Bible. The human eye and brain can be so easily manipulated. Watching an episode of Brain Games with my kiddos shows me how true this is.

One Old Testament Hebrew word for ‘understand’ is H995 בִּין – bı̂yn (bene); A primitive root; to separate mentally (or distinguish), that is, (generally) understand: – attend, consider, be cunning, diligently, direct, discern, eloquent, feel, inform, instruct, have intelligence, know, look well to, mark, perceive, be prudent, regard, (can) skill (-ful), teach, think, (cause, make to, get, give, have) understand (-ing), view, (deal) wise (-ly, man). It has a total of 169 KJV occurrences.

We find a few examples in the following verses:

Job 6:24 – “Teach me and I will be silent; make me understand how I have gone astray.”

Job 13:1 – “Behold, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it.”

Proverbs 1:5 – “Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance.”

Proverbs 14:15 – “The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.”

Proverbs 20:24 – “A man’s steps are from the LORD, how then can he understand his way?”

Proverbs 28:5 – “Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it completely.”

One New Testament Greek word for ‘understand’ is G4920 – συνίημι – suniēmi (soon-ee’-ay-mee); From G4862 and ἵημι hiēmi (to send); to put together, that is, (mentally) to comprehend; by implication to act piously: – consider, understand, be wise. It has a total of 26 KJV occurrences.

Matthew 13:13 – “This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”

Luke 24:45 – “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”

Ephesians 5:17 – “Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

I Timothy 1:6-7 – “Certain persons…have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.”

This is why it is so important to go back for a second, even third or fourth, look. We need to stop being so quick to judgment. Like James instructs us, we must be “quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19). John 7:24 in the BBE states, “let not your decisions be based on what you see, but on righteousness,” and in the ERV, “stop judging by the way things look. Be fair and judge by what is really right,” and in the TPT, “stop judging based on the superficial. First you must embrace the standards of mercy and truth.”

Moral of the Day: go back and reconsider, seek to understand, ask God for wisdom to understand.

James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”